Monday, April 02, 2012

Puppy Chow for Humans: Sweet Snacks

Meal Monday

My kids have begun contributing to the menus at home. Not surprisingly, their suggestions are not the most nutritious dishes, and they tend to skew toward dessert. Yesterday, my son (age 11) made the "Famous Refrigerator Roll" (recipe on the back of Famous Chocolate Wafers box) by slathering chocolate wafer cookies with whipped cream and refrigerating the concoction for a few hours. Always a big hit.

My daughter (age 14) spent a fair amount of time making a huge mess, at the end of which, she produced some stuff you won't want to have around too often because it's so good.

It's called, rather unappetizingly, "Puppy Chow," and it consists of cereal coated in all sorts of bad-for- you-but-delicious things: peanut butter, chocolate, butter and powdered sugar. How can you go wrong?

We first heard tell of Puppy Chow from a niece in college, so this may be a familiar food to some. I had never heard of it, but a quick internet search revealed many recipes.

This particular recipe is from the website www.momswhothink.com, which is a bit frightening because I guess that means there are moms who don't think. But we will save that discussion for a more philosophical blog.

I did change the amount of powdered sugar in the recipe because the original 3 cups was just way too much for us. And I added "for Humans" to the title, just so we're all clear.

I hope you enjoy this easy to make, delicious treat -- sure to be a hit with kids and anyone else who happens to walk by!

4. Pour the peanut butter-chocolate mixture over the cereal and toss evenly, making sure all the cereal gets a good covering.

5. Place the powdered sugar in a large zip-lock type plastic bag.

6. Add the peanut butter-chocolate cereal mixture to the bag, leaving enough room for the puppy chow to be shaken (you may have to divide the mixture into smaller batches, coating one batch at a time).

7. Shake the bag vigorously to evenly coat each piece of the puppy chow with powdered sugar.

8. Once the mixture is fully coated, place in a large serving bowl.

9. Coat any additional pieces by shaking the mixture in the powdered sugar filled bag. Add powdered sugar to the bag as needed until all the mixture is coated.